According to this painted turtle, World Turtle Day is the best day ever! Photo credit: Leonard Lee Rue III—The National Audubon Society Collection/Photo Researchers

Today is World Turtle Day, an annual event sponsored by American Tortoise Rescue that celebrates these rare and ancient reptiles. In honor of our heroes in a half shell—…one moment please…

Okay, the Turtle and Tortoise Anti-Misconception Campaign says that Odontochelys semitestacea, a long-extinct aquatic turtle, is the only so-called turtle to actually have just half a shell (and on its belly, at that). Also, apparently, those green talking “turtles” that some of us knew all too well from after-school cartoons had belly and back shells, so technically they had more than half a shell. Moreover, aforementioned extinct turtle had teeth. No turtles alive today have teeth. And turtles, contrary to popular belief, are not all slowpokes. Some move quite fast, you know—take the leatherback sea turtle, for instance—it held the 1992 Guinness Book world record for fastest-moving reptile. Amazing.

Anyway, because the injustices wrought by human misconceptions about turtles have caused undue psychological suffering for turtles worldwide, today, on this momentous occasion—World Turtle Day 2011—we’ve decided to give some turtles an opportunity to tell us a little about themselves here on the Britannica Blog.